Tiny Farm Blog Organic micro-farming with two acres and some tools ~ a daily photo journal...

With all of the recent rain and warm weather, the trial flower patch has bounced back, well, as best it could, half of it having been overrun by pigweed, and the rest starved by three months of near drought. It’s the most striking part of the entire market garden right now, elsewhere it’s mostly duller shades of green under the lately mainly cloudy skies… The lavatera (pink) came along recently, to join the fine showing of zinnias, calendula and cosmos (a couple are poking into the pic at the top left). I’ve also found a few asters, centaurea, and the gypsophilia that came out in August is still around. And there are a few strange scabiosa (Ping Pong variety) as well. (This pic is about 10′ x 10′ at the end of a 50′ x 15′ bed.) I’m quite liking this, although I dunno how much I learned: to successfully grow cutting flowers, remember to weed and water…?!

Zinnias, calendula and cosmos, randomly selected, snipped short and stuck in a coffee mug… Who can resist? There’s more time in September days to…contemplate, begin going over what worked out and what didn’t during the year. Like, flowers. I dunno why I’ve put them second to veggies. Maybe it was my annoying experience with gladiolas in Year 1, three or four hundred, all flowering at once, with no time to cut ‘em all and nowhere for them to go (the farmers’ market is full of flowers!). And then, digging up and separating and storing the corms… It seemed like a total distraction from the veggies. No further flower action until the tiny, largely ignored cut flower trial this year, when I finally tried more variety and the obvious was revealed to me: cut flowers are a bona fide part of any self-respecting market garden (at least, of this one!). Harvesting even a ragged fistful of flowers is another simple, profound pleasure I shouldn’t be missing. Here’s to next year…!

From flowers on my my mind back in the planning days of April, the results have been no better than middling. Germination was fine for all the many varieties, and we’ve had a sprinkling of gypsophilia, calendula, zinnias, cosmos and more over the last month, with a strong showing by all of the sunflowers. Overall, though, the cut flower bed was at the bottom of the watering and weeding list and, of course, pigweed reigned. So there’s been no real cutting involved, the flowers are simply taking their course, a good trial run for next year, and a splash of color every once in a while in the corner of my eye. The Claret sunflowers (pictured) are particularly striking, even as they age and decline…

Sunflower is my new favorite flower…because it comes up quick. These Claret seedlings, along with Sunrich Orange and the Go Bananas mix, all poked up after barely three days, with even germination down the rows. Flowers this year are lower priority than the veggies, so they got in a little later than they could’ve. Yesterday, I showed my production list to a flower gardener, who nodded as she read, said “oh, cosmos” in what I took to be an approving tone, and finally commented, “well, you may be a little LATE for some” (my emphasis on LATE). She was only referring to the longest possible season for each, but it made me realize what a dread concept LATE has been all along, only usually it’s just in my own head. You’re constantly trying to stay on top of seeding and transplant timing, hoping for early last frost and late first frost, attempting to squeeze in one more planting, and always wondering if this or that will be…TOO LATE. In fact, it always works out… What you learn is, either way, no worries!